GLONASS-M SATELLITE TO LAUNCH JUNE 14 - GLONASS-M satellite number 55 is planned for launch on June 14 from the Plesetsk cosmodrome, said the first deputy director Viktor Kosenko as reported by Interfax.ru. Kosenko said that through 2020, 25 more GLONASS satellites are planned: 11 GLONASS-M, 10 Glonass-K1, and four Glonass-K2. At the same time, he said, one GLONASS-K1 spacecraft is in orbit undergoing flight tests. GLONASS-M number 55 is equipped with experimental apparatus emitting navigation signal in the frequency range L3. The experiment flight qualification of this equipment and accuracy characteristics of the navigation software. Using the third frequency band along with the L1 and L2 bands comprising GLONASS satellites is directed to improving the competitiveness of the system as a whole.   More
(Source: GPS World magazine - Jun 10)

NOAA RETIRES NOAA-16 POLAR SATELLITE - After more than 13 years of helping predict weather and climate patterns and save lives in search and rescue operations, NOAA announced today it has turned off the NOAA-16 Polar-Orbiting Environmental Satellite (POES). It was one of NOAA's longest operating spacecraft, which have a planned lifespan of three to five years. NOAA-16 was launched in 2000 and replaced by NOAA-18 as the primary POES satellite in 2005. The shutdown will result in no data gap, as NOAA-16 was being used as a back-up satellite. NOAA will continue operating multiple POES spacecraft - NOAA-15, NOAA-18 and NOAA-19 - in addition to Suomi NPP, which is now NOAA's primary operational polar satellite.   More
(Source: WTAJ - Jun 10)

ORBITAL POSTPONES NEXT SPACE STATION MISSION - Dulles-based Orbital Sciences Corporation has postponed its second cargo delivery mission to the International Space Station until at least July 1. Orbital says an engine planned for use in a space station mission in 2015 failed in routine testing. It is delaying mission two, planned for early June, until engineers determine why the engine failed. The second mission was originally scheduled for early May, but was postponed by NASA because of space station scheduling.   More
(Source: Washington Business Journal - Jun 10)

RUSSIAN CARGO CRAFT UNDOCKS FROM STATION - An unpiloted Russian Progress cargo spacecraft undocked from the International Space Station Monday, completing its second and final undocking from the station since arriving in late November 2013. The ISS Progress 53 resupply craft undocked from the aft port of the Zvezda service module at 9:29 a.m. EDT as the station orbited over Mongolia. From a window in the Russian segment of the station, Expedition 40 Flight Engineer Alexander Skvortsov photographed the departing Progress cargo ship as it began a 15-second separation burn to move a safe distance away from the orbiting complex.    More
(Source: RedOrbit - Jun 10)

WHAT IS BEHIND GOOGLE INC'S SATELLITE PROJECT? - Is this more looniness from Google? There are new reports that indicate that the web search giant wants to use a network of small, low-orbit satellites to help expand Internet access across the globe. While the developed world is mostly connected, only a third of the population of developing economies, where traditional infrastructure is lacking, goes online. If Google is to continue growing its advertising revenue derived from search, part of the strategy might involve a plan to increase the number of people who surf the web.   More
(Source: Motley Fool - Jun 7)

NASA BEAMS 'HELLO, WORLD!' VIDEO FROM SPACE VIA LASER - NASA successfully beamed a high-definition video 260 miles from the International Space Station to Earth Thursday using a new laser communications instrument. Transmission of "Hello, World!" as a video message was the first 175-megabit communication for the Optical Payload for Lasercomm Science (OPALS), a technology demonstration that allows NASA to test methods for communication with future spacecraft using higher bandwidth than radio waves.   More
(Source: Jet Propulsion Laboratory - Jun 7)

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION CAPTURED TRAVELLING ACROSS THE SKY WITH STUNNING MILKY WAY BACKDROP - A photographer managed to capture an out-of-this-world picture of the International Space Station travelling across the night sky in Wales. Drew Buckley took the beautiful image, which he had been planning since last year, of the ISS orbiting the planet – and even managed to get the Milky Way in the special shot too. But he admitted that it was not easy to get the low-orbit space station - which was launched in 1998 - into frame and that "lady luck" had been on his side.    More
(Source: Mirror.co.uk - Jun 4)

ESA SATELLITE TO REMOVE SPACE JUNK - A new European mission aims to rendezvous a satellite with the hazardous space debris to render it harmless by netting it like fish. The European Space Agency (ESA)'s ambitious mission called e.DeOrbit would use a satellite to net space debris and remove it from low Earth orbit. The agency's Clean Space initiative is studying the e.DeOrbit mission for removing debris, aiming to reduce the environmental impact of the space industry on Earth and space alike. "Decades of launches have left Earth surrounded by a halo of space junk: more than 17,000 trackable objects larger than a coffee cup, which threaten working missions with catastrophic collision. Even a 1 cm nut could hit with the force of a hand grenade," ESA said.    More
(Source: Business Standard - Jun 3)

JUNE IS OPTIMAL TIME FOR ISS VIEWING - As Earth approaches the June Solstice, viewers in the northern hemisphere will be treated to multiple passes of the ISS every night. The space station orbits the Earth at a 51.6-degree angle to the equator. This orbit aligns it with the planet’s day-night terminator, meaning for viewers in latitudes between 40 and 55 north, it remains in sunlight during the entirety of each 90-minute orbit. Viewers in these locations can see up to five passes of the ISS each night at this time of year, but only for a limited time. By June 10, that number is down to two or three passes.   More
(Source: The Space Reporter - Jun 2)

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